Emma Tanner
by musiclight
Summary: This is a story about a new character: Emma Tanner, the older sister of Bree. AU, Eclipse
1. Prologue

~ Prologue ~

It was midnight and the clear sky was filled with millions of stars and one bright full moon. She watched how the ripples distorted the reflection of the tree in the water. Something about the image bothered her, and it was not her enhanced vision which allowed her to see all the tiny particles floating around in the water, along with the motion of the ripples. She was used to this by now, even the sight of the Milky Way above her did not surprise her. No, it was something else and she moved closer to the shore. She was now standing at the edge that separated land from water, which should have resulted in a complete picture of herself in the water. Except there was none, not even a faint shadow.

It shouldn't have come as a shock. If others couldn't see her, then surely the light wouldn't reflect an image of her, not in people's eyes, nor in the water. She curled to a ball and touched the surface. It initiated a new wave of ripples, starting from her fingertip and radiating outwards. She knew the laws with which to describe the dissipation of wave energy, the decrease in wave amplitude in relation to the distance from the source. Why did she remember this but couldn't recall her own name?

There was one name that she remembered: Bree, but she was certain that wasn't her own name. She was related to Bree, but couldn't remember how. A friend? Family maybe?

And there was something with yellow eyes, which she knew because she told herself frequently that this specific fact was important, but she did not memorize what to do with it. She cursed herself for losing the context of this apparently important information. This fact alone brought her nowhere.

The sky changed into beautiful color gradients of purple, red and yellow. It was the break of dawn and soon this place would become crowded with tourists. Some had already gotten up to see the sunrise. A photographer, wanting to shoot a nice picture, or the enthusiastic hiker that could not miss the most beautiful moment of the day. They had gotten up, all excited, not knowing it would be the last time they would see the sun rise.


	2. Chapter 1 - Missing

Who ever decided to lecture complex analysis at Friday 5 PM Emma did not know, but this person couldn't have had one of his sanest moments. It wasn't actually boring, but her brain couldn't follow the complicated contour integrals that professor Hart drew enthusiastically on the blackboard. Why was she even here? Half of the students ditched this class and for good reason. Her iPhone told she still had to hold on for fifteen minutes, so she opened the news app. The top two news articles were all about the latest killing spree, which was becoming worse by the day.

 **'More bloodshed in Seattle'** and **'Five more bodies found at Harbor Island'**.  
Emma let her eyes run over the words. _"_ _The bodies were heavily mutilated._ _"_

Whoever was behind this was a total psycho.

"See you next week." professor Hart said and Emma sighed with relief this torture class was finally over. While packing her bag she noticed Jamie hopping to her table. Jamie was Emma's best friend ever since they started their major in physics at Seattle University. Emma was lucky to have her, because Jamie was much more socially skilled than she was. If it wasn't for her Emma would probably have ended up with the nerds playing World of Warcraft for the entire weekend.

"Where are we going to eat before Marc's party?" Jamie seemed very excited about this party. Emma suspected she had an eye on Marc, who was another physics major and lived near campus. Emma and Jamie were always invited to those parties, since they were two of the very few women walking around in the engineering department.  
"Let's go to that pizza place on South campus." Emma suggested and they left the building for their weekend to begin.

-|x|-

Emma watched with high interest how Jamie and Marc were talking, until suddenly there was some guy next to her whom she didn't know.  
"Looks like there's love in the air." he said casually. Emma thought he was probably a friend of Marc or something. "Yeah, I think Jamie is totally into him."  
"Hm hm. My name is Chris by the way. Can I get you a beer or something?"  
Emma felt her phone buzz in her pocket. Saved by the bell.  
"Sorry, gotta take this. See ya." she said and walked to the bathroom, the only quiet place in this tiny apartment.  
'Mom calling' the screen blinked. Didn't she tell she had a party tonight?  
When Emma accepted the call she recognized her mother's panicked voice, but that was about all she could make up from the flow of words she was hearing.  
"Mom, calm down. What's going on?"  
"Bree didn't come home. Is she with you? Please tell me she's with you."  
Emma's first reaction was panic as well. Of course Bree wasn't with her, she had no idea where your sister was hanging out on Friday evening. "No. When was she supposed to get home?"  
"One-and-a-half hours ago. She's not picking up her phone. I've tried calling her twenty times already. It's not even ringing anymore."

 _Damn it Bree, this is not the time to let your phone battery die._

Her mom had been calling around. Bree was supposed to be watching a movie at Jessie's and had left her place at around 8 PM. That was two hours ago.  
"Did you report her missing?" Emma's throat felt thick when she asked her mom this question. In her mind she had already jumped to conclusions of which she desperately hoped they weren't true.  
"I tried, but they told me it's too soon. I can call again in four hours."

 _What the hell?  
_

Emma tried to sooth her mom. "Maybe she ran into some friends." but it didn't sound as comforting as it was supposed to. Actually, Emma was afraid she had made it worse when her mom started sobbing over the phone.  
"I'll come home asap." Emma proposed.  
"Dad will come and get you. We won't let you go out alone on the street." that sounded like mom again. She had to remind her mother often that she was 22 and could look out for herself, but now was not the time to argue over things like this.

Emma left the party with some excuse about feeling ill. The last thing she wanted was the whole department knowing that her sister was missing. If she even was missing, because Emma still had hope Bree would just show up later that night.


	3. Chapter 2 - (Not) lost

_Thanks for your positive reviews (I also appreciate less positive but constructive reviews by the way). From now on it may take a while before each new chapter is posted, since I only have an outline of the story and not written the full text yet._

 **Chapter 2:**

 _Some families grow closer together when losing a loved-one, others fall apart._

Bree did not come home that night, nor the next day and the day after. Her parents reported Bree as missing but she was among many others that had disappeared and the changes of them being alive were decreasing by the hour.  
"We are doing the best we can." the officer had said.

Emma's parents were disconsolate, but despite their efforts to make a livable situation at home, Emma distanced herself from her parents. Ever since that terrible Friday evening, where they had all been anxiously waiting for a redeeming phone call that never came, Emma's parents started being over protective, and Emma could not handle it very well. They fought often and it was about two months after Bree's disappearance that she once again locked herself in her bedroom. She didn't cry, she was just angry; at her parents, for not understanding, at Bree, for not coming home, but most of all at the person responsible for her disappearing.

Emma had yelled at her parents, had said terrible things of which she was sure she would regret the next day. It had started with a simple question, if Emma was allowed to go out on Thursday with her friends. Her mother's answer had been simple too: "No."  
Emma protested, and that's when her father joined in on the discussion, reprimanding Emma for her behavior  
She became furious. "Keeping me at home won't bring her back!  
"She is not coming back!" her father yelled back. Both Emma and her mother were shocked by her dads outburst  
"Have you given up already? What kind of father are you?!"  
Emma slammed the door, stamped to her bedroom, and slammed another door.

One thing was sure: as long as Bree's body wasn't being found, Emma was not giving up hope.

-|x|-

A great thing about the computational physics class was that you could work on the computer, giving the possibility to chat secretly with your classmates. If the teaching assistant would show up behind your back you just quickly popped up your programming editor, looking at it as if you were thinking very hard about a difficult line of code. A terrible thing about computational physics was that you were forced to program in Fortran, a language from the stone age, which made learning it entirely useless.

While working on a subroutine, a message window showed up on Emma's screen.

 **Jamie:** No news?

 **Emma:** Nope

Emma deliberately kept it quiet that her sister was missing, only Jamie knew. Luckily Seattle was big and none of her classmates or anybody else in the department actually knew her family.

 **Jamie:** Sorry

 **Emma:** Let's talk at lunch. I need to ask you something.

When class is finished Jamie and Emma walk to the cafeteria together.  
"I need a favor." Emma started. It was a small favor really. She just didn't want her parents to know.  
"Anything. So what's up?"  
"I'm going to tell my parents I'll be staying with you tonight, so if one of them calls, could you tell them I'm with you?"  
"Ehr.. sure.. what are you going to do?"  
"To check out Harbor Island.."

As expected, Jamie did not understand.

"Are you out of your mind? That's dangerous, Emma. What if you disappear just like Bree?"  
"She's not lost!"

 _Not yet at least.._

"What on earth are you hoping to achieve?"  
"I.. I'm not sure really. I just want.. "

 _to find Bree._

Emma did not say it out loud, because she knew changes were astronomically low that something like that would happen. Perhaps she just wanted to see what was actually going on in the streets at night. It was stupid, naive, and dangerous of course, but she was curious too. Both high and low quality newspaper journalists had the most wildest theories of what was going on. While people of all ages were being slaughtered, small group of around twenty teenagers were still missing, and among them was Bree.

It was clear to Jamie that she couldn't convince Emma. "Keep your phone on and regular send me messages. If I don't receive one every ten minutes, I'll call 911."

-|x|-

Nervous but determined Emma drove to Harbor Island. It was a cold and rainy night, not the kind of weather you would expect at the end of April, but then again, in April you could expect any kind of weather. She parked the car near the dock and started walking towards the neighborhood which everybody in the city avoided.

The police had set up a perimeter around the area. By some luck Emma found a hole where the steel fences were destroyed. The bars were bent in strange ways, as if somebody had folded them with bare hands, but nobody could possibly be that strong. Carefully she stepped through the hole, for which luckily she was skinny enough. The moment she stood on the other side of the fence, she realized she had entered the danger zone. It was dark, because apart from some flickering streetlights, most of them were broken. It was silent, and each small noise made her adrenaline levels rise to a maximum. A street cat, the howling wind, and noises she couldn't classify were deafening in this silent and deserted area. Every time she heard something she had to tell herself to relax. The worst thing, however, was the smell. It smelled really, really bad. Was this what rotten flesh smelled like? Emma quickly removed the image of a decaying body from her mind. This was not motivating her to keep going.

 _What a sick mess._

Emma walked between what first looked like a building, but later notices that it was actually a bunch of large containers stacked on top of each other. It was so dark that at first she wanted to use her iPhone as a torch light, but then realized it was probably not wise to draw possible attention. Emma did send a message to Jamie, to notify she was still alive. Jamie replied with the message that she had to be careful. Emma was completely calm, this place was deserted, there was nothing to be afraid of. Until the moment she heard something from behind.

It was a snapping sound, combined with what sounded like .. a groan? Emma quickly turns and at a distance of about fifty yards she can outline two figures in the dark. One was definitely killing the other. She slapped her hand before her mouth to prevent herself from screaming and ducked behind the pile of containers. What if he had seen her?

 _I'm doomed_

Her heart was racing in her chest and she held her breath, being too scared to breath. Her mind wanted but one thing: run, as fast as she possibly could, but her body was paralyzed with fear. When after about half a minute she was still waiting, she found the courage to peek again. Relief flows through her when she sees the killer has left. The body was lying still on the ground, but Emma did not hesitate another moment and started running to the location where she had parked her car. She almost stumbles a couple of times and her legs hurt, but the adrenaline kept her going. When she reaches the fence she quickly climbs through the hole to take the last sprint towards her car. Her hands are trembling, and the keys fall out of her hands. "God damn it." she mutters, but finally manages to unlock the door and climb behind the steering wheel. Her hands still tremble, so much that she can't get the key into the ignition.

 _Chill out, you're still alive._

When Emma takes her iPhone out of her pocket she sees twelve unread messages and two missed calls. All are from Jamie. The last one reads:

 **Jamie:** Emma, reply. I'm calling 911 now!

That was received two minutes ago. Emma quickly typed a message back.

 **Emma:** I'm ok

She sees Jamie is typing and when the reply has finally reached her iPhone it's full with curse words; Jamie was mad. Emma smiled however, when she got another message:

 **Jamie:** but I'm glad you're ok

-|x|-

Emma drove to Jamie's place. It was one AM when she parked the car in front of the student complex. In her mind she plays the whole scene over and over again. She must have seen it wrong, but it actually looked like the killer was biting the persons neck. Could it be "I am legend" becoming reality? Was there some kind of virus infecting people, turning them into zombie killers? No of course not.. that was ridiculous..

Yet this event had even more increased Emma's curiosity and she was destined to figure out more...


End file.
